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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

I don't understand why rollercoasters go down so often throughout the day, given that they are inspected each morning

I've never worked at a theme park, but are they mostly just basic error codes rather than serious issues?

I remember hearing that The Smiler will stop if the operator holds the start button for too long (why??) and also if a guest holds the harness down for too long (why?)

I think that a rollercoaster may also flag an error if it runs too fast or slow (maybe this proves that flat rides are more reliable?)

It's a bad idea to generate so many warnings, because it also desensitises staff to more serious issues (years ago, people in a restaurant ignored a serious fire alarm because it was oversensitive and constantly went off anyway)
 
Secret Weapon said:
I don't understand why rollercoasters go down so often throughout the day, given that they are inspected each morning

I've never worked at a theme park, but are they mostly just basic error codes rather than serious issues?

I remember hearing that The Smiler will stop if the operator holds the start button for too long (why??) and also if a guest holds the harness down for too long (why?)

I think that a rollercoaster may also flag an error if it runs too fast or slow (maybe this proves that flat rides are more reliable?)

It's a bad idea to generate so many warnings, because it also desensitises staff to more serious issues (years ago, people in a restaurant ignored a serious fire alarm because it was oversensitive and constantly went off anyway)
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The stoppages are not always mechanical or electrical so cannot be blamed on Merlin or the level of maintenance of the rides. Often stoppages are due to guests - being stupid, becoming ill, problems with loading/unloading etc. If someone was sick on Hyperia or The Smiler for example, they don't announce "someone has been sick, we're just cleaning the ride", they close it with the standard wording of "...temporarily ceased operation", the same as when there is an actual breakdown.

Most of the downtime of a ride, isn't usually the actual repairing of it (if its a breakdown) but the waiting for an engineer to get to the ride and then once fixed, doing the couple of cycles the ride needs before it reopens.

People immediately jump to the conclusion that it's the park or ride's fault when quite often, it's nothing to do with that at all.
 
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Secret Weapon said:
I don't understand why rollercoasters go down so often throughout the day, given that they are inspected each morning

I've never worked at a theme park, but are they mostly just basic error codes rather than serious issues?

I remember hearing that The Smiler will stop if the operator holds the start button for too long (why??) and also if a guest holds the harness down for too long (why?)

I think that a rollercoaster may also flag an error if it runs too fast or slow (maybe this proves that flat rides are more reliable?)

It's a bad idea to generate so many warnings, because it also desensitises staff to more serious issues (years ago, people in a restaurant ignored a serious fire alarm because it was oversensitive and constantly went off anyway)
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annoyingly (but for very good reason) rides stop for the simplest of reasons sometimes, rather than an actual technical fault, such as:
1) Guest behaviour: last Saturday Hyperia stopped mid lift hill for 10 mins because a guest had their phone out. Another time I was stuck on the colossus break run for half an hour because a guest entered the ride area, etc,
2) Sensors: something as simple as a pigeon sitting on a track will most of the time, cause the ride to pause until the sensor has been cleared. If I remember correctly, smiler had to cease operation the other year because wasps were flying by the turn into the final break run.

They’re complex machines and thankfully they do their job right 99.999999% of the time at least
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.
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Wrong coaster ;) 🤣🤣🤣

watching GIF
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.
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Oh I didn’t realise, that would be genuinely horrible!

Would guest reports have closed the ride down in this instance, or would staff had seen it on security cameras? I assumed it would have been sensor related
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I believe the Smiler wasp problem was nothing to do with ride sensors, rather, it was that riders were sitting on the brake run, surrounded by angry wasps, with a bright yellow OTSR round their necks.
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There must be a problem with wasps in that area, because I remember seeing wasp traps in the queue line for the old Black Hole ride (circa 2008, I think - but may have been earlier)
Dhev123 said:
Would guest reports have closed the ride down in this instance, or would staff had seen it on security cameras? I assumed it would have been sensor related
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Maybe the riders told the ride staff as soon as they disembarked?
 
Call_um said:
Unfortunately, Stealth has gone back to listed as closed all day today.

Not that I think Stealth is going anywhere anytime soon, but this is the second year in a row it’s had some pretty big issues early in season, which can’t be cheap.
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Got to love some quality Intamin technology 😂
 
Engineers seem to be changing the cable today. Never known them to change the cable this early on in the season.

If it’s just a cable change it’s closed for though should be no issue with it opening Thursday afternoon / Friday.
 
Call_um said:
Engineers seem to be changing the cable today. Never known them to change the cable this early on in the season.

If it’s just a cable change it’s closed for though should be no issue with it opening Thursday afternoon / Friday.
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There was a video online from a backstage tour which said that the cable costs around £20k, and it is usually replaced around 3 times per year:-


From: https://youtube.com/shorts/0W0_akfYZ9E
Mattie boy said:
It must have changed after i posted as it definitely said 30th April, hence my post
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That happens often

I remember Spinball Whizzer's SRQ was meant to open on a Saturday in September 2024, but it got pushed back a day or two at the last second
 
owenstreet7 said:
I would say the biggest thing is the Hyperia Hype amongst UK enthusiasts which has made a bonus explode two fold. The fact people argue over it is ridiculous.

The rope drop is absolutely awful, you get people going crazy to be on it first too.

I've never seen overseas parks do it for last train so much, I've seen it happen on Taron but not on Zadra or Voltron.

The fight for the last train is non existent in continental Europe.
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The rope drop is a stupid idea, frankly. Back in the easter holidays when I went someone ran into me, knocked me down (I'm quite short, so it wasn't exactly hard!) and ran off, without noticing. Hyperia ended up being 130 minutes for me! Why couldn't they do what practically all the other merlin parks do and just let people flow through the entrance and wait by their first ride of choice?
 
MrCoaster said:
The rope drop is a stupid idea, frankly.

Why couldn't they do what practically all the other merlin parks do and just let people flow through the entrance and wait by their first ride of choice?
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I agree with this

I've never actually seen the rope drop (as I am usually too far back), but I've been waiting in the queue for ages, and I remember thinking there was a delay of some kind (until I realised on a subsequent visit that it was intentional)

I genuinely don't understand the point of causing so much congestion around the dome; is it simply the case that they want people to spend more time buying food in the dome, as the other restaurants aren't fully staffed until after 10 a.m. ?

Is it due to an insurance liability in case somebody trips and falls before 10 a.m.?

I don't know how other parks work, as I have only been at opening time for AT and Thorpe in recent years; AT is a bit different due to its sheer size, and so they probably need time for people to reach the rides before 10 a.m. ?
 
There's been moving vehicles on the pathways numerous times I have been in Thorpe waiting for them to open the rest of the park.
 
MrCoaster said:
The rope drop is a stupid idea, frankly. Back in the easter holidays when I went someone ran into me, knocked me down (I'm quite short, so it wasn't exactly hard!) and ran off, without noticing. Hyperia ended up being 130 minutes for me! Why couldn't they do what practically all the other merlin parks do and just let people flow through the entrance and wait by their first ride of choice?
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In my view, Rope Drop at Thorpe has got worse since Hyperia opened

It's got a lot more frantic in my view and what is bad is the pathway by Colossus is congested so it's basically a stampede
 
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